This dissertation examines the relationship between Buddhism and the sociology of religion, by examining the ways in which the study of American Buddhism can inform the theories of the sociology of religion, as well as ...

Research shows that teachers’ treatment and perceptions of students will vary
based upon the race of the teacher and student. When teachers share the same race as the student, the student will benefit in the way of higher ...

There has been a recent push towards racial diversity in congregations by many religious leaders. However, racially diverse congregations, which have been a popular subject amongst researchers, are both rare and seemingly ...

Ongoing revival of religion in Chinese society provides a rare opportunity for testing controversial sociological theories in a non-Western, non-Christian context. The goal of my dissertation is to examine the complex links ...

Building on the implications of qualitative work from India and urbanism theories, I aim to understand how religious bonding social capital in contemporary India varies along greater urbanization and whether social class ...

It has been proposed that an individual's attitudes and beliefs strongly reflect their concepts of what God is and what God represents. However, where do these attitudes and beliefs originate? I theorize that they come ...

The act of having tolerance has become a topic that needs reconsidering because of the discrimination and prejudiced actions performed towards certain religions, homosexuals, and various ethnic and racial groups that have ...

Why do people like where they live? Why do people decide to stay at their current residence? Are residents satisfied with their community? All of these questions and more have been explored and investigated for decades ...

Despite stories of secularization in America, congregations still possess power as
one of America's most prolific social organizations. Their power can be seen by the fact that congregations receive the highest proportion ...

Building from a synthesis of Interracial Contact Theory and Racial Formations Theory, this study updates the Contact Hypothesis, focusing on contemporary issues of racial identity and ideology and on the experiences of ...

Social scientists have long recognized a positive link between religion and civic life in the United States. Americans who attend religious services more frequently, who pray more often, and who are more involved in the ...

Historically, popular culture has been known to serve as a tool to transmit values, norms, and stereotypes from generation to generation. The technology trend that is indicative of the “information age” has created numerous ...

This study focuses on dogmatic orientations toward worldly and otherworldly authority. Using data from the Baylor Religion Survey, I attempt to identify which social conditions are especially salient in determining ...

Educational attainment is a commonly used variable when looking at outcomes of immigration in the United States. This paper contributes to educational and immigrant research in three ways. First, this paper will account ...

Parents often choose to homeschool their children for reasons that, if their goals are accomplished, should contribute to relatively low levels of substance use among their children. Specifically, many parents desire to ...

Many researchers have demonstrated how peer influences can lead to increases in adolescent religiosity, but none have endeavored to examine the effects of media and peer influences that might lead to decreases in adolescent ...

This project is an effort to test and extend Randall Collins’ interaction ritual theory in the context of religious organizations. The theory proposes that optimal management of bodily copresence, intersubjectivity, and ...

Evangelical Protestants have increasingly aligned with the Republican Party in their voting patterns and opinions since the late 1970’s. As a result, this alignment of Evangelical Protestantism with the GOP could present ...

From the perspective of a refined religious economy theory, the present paper is the first to empirically study the interplay between exclusive and nonexclusive religious bodies. Through reconstructing the historical facts ...

While many Christian colleges and universities in the United States have lost their religious character over time, members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) actively seek to make Christian ...